Wait for Dusk

Chapter Nine

Valerio and Stefan stood under the lamplight in front of me, their hands buried in their pockets as a brisk wind swept through the park. Danaus remained a silent shadow just behind my shoulder, gazing down on me and the lies that I was carefully weaving for all those who would listen. I needed to find a way to escape my Nick conundrum before it got someone killed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my most pressing problem at the moment.

“If we’re here to eliminate the naturi, I don’t understand why we don’t just hunt them down and destroy them,” Valerio said, pulling the two sides of his open coat more tightly around his body. His brown hair fluttered a bit in the wind while his eyes teared up in the cold.

“We have more to do here than deal with the naturi,” Stefan declared, standing stiff and tall, as if unaffected by the growing cold, which I truly doubted. Valerio was starting to look cold, and I knew that the nightwalker was older than Stefan. Old age didn’t allow you to be completely immune to the elements, no matter how he wished to appear impervious.

“So I gathered,” I murmured. “Macaire would not have sent me here unless he had other thoughts in mind. The naturi are a concern, but it doesn’t sound like they are the reason why there are no Ancients within the city. That is what concerns me. Where have all the nightwalkers gone?”

“Maybe you should ask your consort,” Stefan suggested, turning his narrowed gaze on Danaus.

“I’ve not visited here in several centuries,” Danaus replied sharply, taking one step closer to Stefan. “I’ve hunted no nightwalkers within the city limits.” The Ancient nightwalker also took a step closer, trapping me between them. I pressed one hand against Stefan’s chest, while shoving my shoulder into Danaus’s chest, keeping the two separated before I got squished between them.

“Enough!” I said, raising my voice. “Themis and Danaus are not responsible for the slaughter of Ancients and you know it, Stefan. Killing off Ancients isn’t that easy. I suspect either Macaire’s been cleaning out the territory for his own private use, or somehow this Veyron has found an effective way to kill them so he can take over the domain.”

“Why do we care?” Valerio interjected, drawing my gaze back to him, as both Danaus and Stefan took steps away from each other. I dropped my hand back to my side and straightened my stance. “Nightwalkers die all the time, many killed by our own kind, not to mention the naturi. Why should the Ancients of Budapest be any different?”

I shoved my hand back into my pocket and shook my head as I looked at the ground. The snow had been packed down beneath our shuffling feet so it was nearly a sheet of white ice. It also bothered me that none of the nightwalkers seemed to know or care anything about the coven. But then, that seemed to be a smaller concern at the moment. “Because when this war grows with the naturi, we’re going to need every Ancient we’ve got on hand to help stop them. We can’t afford to lose them in silly territorial squabbles. Besides, if Veyron has found a way to kill off Ancients, wouldn’t you like to know what it is? After all, Vienna is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Budapest.”

“So what do you want to do?” Stefan demanded.

I looked up at him, a frown pulling at the corner of my lips. I had yet to understand why he had decided to tag along on this little mission, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t like it when I did finally learn the reason. For now he seemed willing to play along, but I needed to be cautious about which direction I sent him in. If Veyron was killing Ancients, I didn’t want him getting too close and risk losing him when I still had a need for his skills. Also, if Veyron was killing Ancients, I didn’t want Stefan getting too close and learning the secret of how to do it before I did.

“See what you can dig up regarding this Ferko. I want to know about the Budapest pack. I want to know their size, their average age, and a gauge of their strength. I also want to know how long they’ve had this easy alliance with the nightwalkers in the area.” There was a good chance that if I was going to go up against Veyron, I would also be taking on Ferko and his people as well.

“And where do you want me?” Valerio asked.

“Quietly, see what you can dig up on Veyron. Find out where he holds court and if he actually has a family. Just watch without drawing too much attention to yourself.” It was a great risk sending Valerio digging after Veyron, but of the four of us, he had the best chance at quietly gathering information. Valerio had managed for centuries to hide his true age from all the nightwalkers around him, and I was one of the few that knew he was actually an Ancient. Furthermore, he had a knack for sneaking in and out of a place unnoticed by other nightwalkers around him.

“And what will you be doing?” Stefan groused.

“I thought Danaus and I would go back inside and enjoy the mineral bath.” I jerked my thumb back toward the enormous building that loomed behind us. “We’re going hunting for naturi, you ass!”

“Naturi? Mira, you can’t—”

I held up my hand to halt Valerio’s words in mid-sentence. “It’s like you said, we’re here to take care of the naturi problem. Danaus and I are going to do some scouting tonight. We’ll try to find where they are hiding out and how many are in the region. Our goal won’t be to wipe them all out in one quick swoop.”

“Why not?” Danaus inquired from behind me.

“Because if we do, then we’ll have no reason to stick around and spy on Veyron and his little clan of fledglings,” I said with a smile. Besides, I didn’t think it would be that easy to dispatch the naturi, given that Danaus and I no longer had our greatest weapon at our disposal. We’d have to cut through the naturi the old-fashioned way, one by bloody one.

Needing no further guidance from me, Stefan immediately disappeared from sight. I closed my eyes and scanned the region. I couldn’t sense him anywhere nearby, but that didn’t mean the nightwalker wasn’t cloaked.

“You don’t trust him,” Valerio announced.

I cracked one eye open and looked at my companion, a frown pulling at one corner of my mouth. “Not a bit. I can’t begin to guess as to why he elected to join us. You, I sort of understand, though I don’t trust you either.”

“That’s because you’re a smart girl,” Valerio said. He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my temple. “You kids be careful and have fun. We’ll meet up again at your quaint little hotel room tomorrow night.”

“Looking forward to it,” I grumbled just before Valerio disappeared as well.

“I don’t like him,” Danaus declared when we were finally alone.

I threaded my arm through his and directed him back down the sidewalk, winding out way through the park. “I never really expected you to. He’s not the type to take things too seriously. He likes to play with his food when he gets the chance.”

“I’m surprised I haven’t staked him already.”

“Me, too,” I agreed softly. Valerio liked to live dangerously, playing with both humans and lycanthropes whenever the opportunity arose. Only the coven could make him toe the line, and that was simply because he didn’t want them controlling his life.

We walked more than a block in the cold, the snow and ice crunching beneath our feet. The distant whirr of cars racing down the nearby busy streets could be heard, but even that sound was fading as most people retreated to their homes and away from the cold for the night. Pausing at a street corner, I huddled close to the hunter, trying to use his body to protect me from the wind.

“What did this little show of power accomplish tonight at the baths?” Danaus demanded. “Besides unnecessary violence and senselessly risking your life.”

“I taught them to fear the coven. I taught them that the true power lies with the coven and not with this little love fest that Odelia and Veyron have created here.”

“It taught them to fear you, and fear doesn’t win you allies in this war.”

“But fear will keep the dagger out of my back. Fear may keep them from willingly being my allies, but it will keep them from trying to kill me. It’s the ones like Stefan that don’t fear me that I worry about.”

“How could Stefan not fear the power of the Fire Starter?”

“Because he knows I’m weak now, as weak as I was when I was human.”

“How can you say that? You’re stronger now than ever before. You’re an Elder on the coven.”

“I have a consort now and that makes me vulnerable. You are my weakness, and those in power know it now.”

“Mira—”

“You’re worth the risk a thousand times over. Never doubt you are worth the risk.”

I pulled away from Danaus and cleared my throat. We needed to talk of other things besides his impact on my life. We had bigger concerns. “Can you scan for the naturi? Get a sense of how many are in the city?” I asked, looking up at him.

“I’ll see what I can find for you.” Closing his eyes, I could feel him send his powers out from his body. They washed out over the city, sliding across the river, up through the hills of Buda and down across the flat plains that composed Pest. At the same time, I slipped into the hunter’s mind, viewing the world through his eyes. I could feel little balls of energy that were different from the energy I sensed in nightwalkers. It was similar to the earthy tones I could sense from the lycanthropes, only stronger. I had thought these bits of power were only more lycanthropes, but I’d been wrong. I had actually been sensing the naturi, thanks to my new gift from Nick.

Pockets of them were scattered throughout the city and in the outlying woods beyond the city limits. A thicker concentration wasn’t too far from us. Their power was dense in the air, clouding everything around them.

“Is there an island in the Danube near here?” Danaus asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Shutting down my own powers and pulling out of his mind, I concentrated on what I could remember of the city. “Yes, there’s actually three islands in the Danube near Budapest. Is that where they are located?” I was impressed with Danaus’s skill. I could pick out a vague sense of direction, but I had no real feel for distance.

“Most of them are.”

“How did you know they’re on an island?”

“There’s a large blank spot around them where there are no signs of human life. The only spots in the area that would match such a thing would be the river that cuts through the middle of the city.” The hunter rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before looking down at me. “What did you see?”

A sheepish grin graced my mouth as I stared up at him. I had made no attempt to cloak my presence in his mind. In truth, I hadn’t thought about it. My main concern was trying to see if I could sense the naturi as well. I could, to my surprise, but with nowhere near the skill that Danaus could.

“Little balls of earth energy. I sensed them earlier but I thought they were just more lycanthropes,” I admitted, and then immediately regretted my words. I was no longer accustomed to hiding things from Danaus. I was used to him knowing everything I knew.

“How is it that you sensed them?”

I dropped my head and clenched my teeth, cursing my stupidity and carelessness. “Things have changed since that night in Savannah.” I forced each word out as if it was stuck in my throat. “Nick gave me the ability to sense all types of energy, but I’m still trying to sort it out. I’m nowhere near as skilled as you when it comes to sensing the naturi.”

To my utter shock, Danaus ran his cold hand across my cheek so that he was now cupping the back of my neck. He pulled me forward and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “He was inside of the bathhouse, wasn’t he?”

“How did you know?”

“I sensed your rage and fear.”

“I’m afraid he’s going to kill you,” I whispered.

“You’d never allow it.”

Blinking back tears, I turned my head and pressed my lips to the palm of his hand. “Thank you for your confidence in me.” It was all I could say. He was giving me his trust, and as I had already proved once tonight, I didn’t deserve it.